


Yellow Roses Mean Freedom

by bastanubis29



Series: #Nomin: The pure couple we deserve [8]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (and Jeno), Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, happy birthday na na, jaemin likes flowers, jeno is purple harem pants is the best concept, jeno's a genie, nomin, three wishes au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 02:17:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15698100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bastanubis29/pseuds/bastanubis29
Summary: “I said them, didn’t I? That’s just typical. Accidental wishes. How many?”“You’ve used two,” Jeno murmurs. “I haven’t put them into motion yet.”“What did I wish for?”“For this not to end, and for it to be normal.”orthe one where Jeno is a genie, and Jaemin is the owner of his lamp





	Yellow Roses Mean Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to have this out for Jaemin's birthday, but it ended up being longer than expected.

Jaemin frequents antique stores for one reason: to find things to put his flowers in. He’s got a budget, a plan, and a special way of bargaining with the old women that generally own these kinds of stores. He appreciates the variety available to him in antique stores, no two are the same and they provide a less stereotypical selection of options.

He has a type when it comes to the things that he buys, and he’s not sure how Chenle and Renjun talked him into going to the new Chinese antique store that opened up down the street. None of the ornate goods that fill the aisles fit the simple, clean-lined theme of the pottery in his home.

Yet, Jaemin is drawn to a short, Joseon dynasty-style oil lamp in the back of the shop, hidden behind a variety of tea sets. The Korean characters on the base make it obvious that it doesn’t really belong in the Chinese antique shop, and Jaemin knows in the instant that he sees it that he has to buy it.

Gently, he takes it from its place on the shelf and carries it to the front counter, placing it in front of the small, elderly woman manning the register.

The woman looks up from her book, standing to her full height and inspecting the lamp.

“This lamp is more trouble than it’s worth,” she says, raising her eyebrow at Jaemin. “But it always seems to have a way of choosing its owner.”

“I’d like it just the same,” Jaemin replies, fingers working gently over the characters at the base.

“Be careful, child. All things come with a price, and not just a price tag.”

(A voice in the back of Jaemin’s head tells him to put the lamp back and get the heck out of the store. He never listens to that part of his brain.)

“How much?” he asks disregarding her statement, pulling his wallet from his pocket.

“Ten dollars. Good luck.”

He hands over the money, takes the lamp back, and walks back to his apartment complex only a block over from the store.

He lives in a small, one bedroom apartment, and any space that is not desperately needed for daily function or survival is taken up by plants of all colors, all within vases and china that Jaemin buys from antique stores. Jaemin jokes with a few of his friends (Mark and Donghyuck in particular) that on weekends he moonlights as a florist, but in actuality he just really likes gardening, and the balcony of his apartment offers little room for the amount of things he wants to grow.

The few places in his apartment not covered by flowerpots are covered by various vases and containers that Jaemin puts cut flowers in. He’s been looking for a container to put a specific bouquet in, and though he was hesitant about the oil lamp at first, it was seeming more and more apparent that it was exactly what he had needed.

The bouquet he has in mind is simple: yellow roses, gardenia, purple lilac, and wisteria combining inside of the lamp to produce a truly eye-catching centerpiece for his small dining room table. (He says dining room table, but truly means the folding table wedged into the corner of his apartment kitchen where he occasionally eats his meals.) The table had escaped his sea of plants purely because of the fact that Jaemin  _ did _ have company over occasionally, and they generally didn’t appreciate having variegated tulips hanging into their food.

He’s about to pour water into the lamp and finish off the bouquet when he notices a stubborn patch of dirt on the side of it. He grabs the hem of his t-shirt and rubs furiously at it until the patch of lamp shines enough that he can see his reflection in it.

He places the lamp back onto the table, pulling an old metal watering can from the shelf next to his refrigerator, and prepares to pour water into the refill opening on the top of the lamp.

Then, he notices that the lamp is smoking.

The hazy purple smoke clouds oddly over the floor, and with a flash, there’s suddenly a man standing in the middle of Jaemin’s kitchen.

Jaemin takes in the purple harem pants, small golden vest (taking care to dwell on absolutely none of the bare chest in front of him), and black hair trying to clear his mind of any and all thoughts as he escapes to his room for a moment to get the other man a t-shirt at the very least. Frankly, he can’t really think until the other man is dressed like a normal human person, and the shock and vulnerability of the other man are enough for him to know that he needs to act like this is a normal occurrence for both of their sakes.

(He may be whispering, “be still my beating heart” as he does, but that’s no one’s business but his own.)

He returns to the kitchen with arms full of clothing, throwing a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants at the mysterious man in front of him.

“Bathroom’s through that door. I’d really be more comfortable if you put some real clothes on.”

The stranger obliges, pulling the door shut behind him without a word.

Jaemin sits down in one of the table’s chairs, rubbing his face and mentally sending curses to every deity he can remember. He now understands why the old woman was talking about the lamp being trouble.

The stranger returns, and they regard each other with cool stares. Jaemin, of course, is freaking out internally, because: A. The man’s face is even more beautiful he could imagine, and C. he had appeared from literally nowhere to stand in questionable garments in Jaemin’s kitchen.

“Who are you?” Jaemin finally asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

The stranger replies, “I’m Jeno. Guardian of the lamp and granter of wishes to whoever possesses it.”

Jaemin blinks once, very slowly, as the man continues.

“Granter of three wishes. I should have specified. And the usual limits exist, you know: I can’t raise the dead, can’t give you more wishes, can’t force anyone to fall in love with you; that sort of thing. But you get three wishes, then I go back in the lamp until someone else comes into possession of it.”

“How long have you been in the lamp?”

Jeno seems to have to think very hard about this, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he fishes for an answer. “I think it was the mid-seventies? I sleep a lot in the lamp. Time is a human construct, after all.”

Jaemin digests this information, considering his options. The man in front of him is either crazy or actually a genie. And last Jaemin checked, crazy people don't appear by rubbing lamps. 

“Three wishes? Anything at all so long as it doesn’t break the rules?”

“Yep. Then I go back in the lamp and get out of your hair.”

“Cool. So, I’m currently not going to redeem any of them. Is that okay?”

Jeno looks shocked. “You don’t have anything to wish for?”

“Well, I’ve got to think. Potentially life-changing choices here, best to take some time to figure out exactly what I want.”

The other man swallows. “Well, you see, I can’t, um, go back into the lamp until the wishes are granted.”

“Like, at all? Not even to sleep?”

“No…”

“So, looks like you’re my new roommate for a little while. Welcome. Make yourself at home.”

“I can’t! There, there are rules…”

Jaemin sighs. “Look, dude. I’m trying to help you out here. Give you some time out of the lamp. Take it or leave it; I do have things that I could wish for if you’re really adverse to the idea of spending a week or two living like a normal person.”

Jeno blinks, looking between Jaemin and the lamp like this deal is a trap. “A few weeks?”

“If at any time you  _ want  _ to go back, you say the word, I’ll give the wishes, and we part ways permanently.”

“ _ My  _ call?”

“Exactly.”

“No ulterior motives here?”

“None.” ( _ Unless you count thinking that you’re really cute an ulterior motive _ , Jaemin thinks.)

“Then, I guess it won’t hurt…”

“Awesome. I’ll take the couch, and you can have the bed.”

* * *

 

Living with Jeno had its challenges. 

Jaemin being Jaemin, he manages to find a way to beat himself up over Jeno’s stay at his apartment. He tries to keep in mind that Jeno doesn’t really have a choice in any of this; all he did was live in a lamp the Jaemin had just so happened to buy and was just along for the ride. In all reality (in Jaemin’s mind, at least), Jaemin had all of the power in their relationship, despite Jeno having all of that literal cosmic power. That made it a little bit difficult for Jaemin to get up in the morning feeling completely carefree.

But it was challenging in more amusing ways, as well. Jaemin had woken up the first morning to the sound of Jeno screaming at the alarm clock. While Jaemin generally didn’t need his alarm to wake up, he still left it on just in case. The previous night, he really should have turned it off; he had nothing to do the next day and intended to sleep in a bit.

Needless to say, he did not. Jeno’s screaming pulled Jaemin from the world of dreams and had plopped him directly into a situation where he had to explain to someone what an alarm clock was and why it made that sound.

Jeno’s eyes lit up in wonder while Jaemin explained, but he chose not to focus on that. He also chose not to focus on the way that Jeno spent the rest of the day figuring out how to make the clock go off at strange times. He didn’t notice how Jeno’s cat-like eyes lit up everytime Jaemin groaned in frustration, then laughed at the look of shock of Jeno’s face.

Another example was Jeno’s fascination with the television. Jaemin had jokingly shown him Aladdin, and between complaining that the creators had gotten genie culture wrong, Jeno had snuggled right up to Jaemin and asked him how everything worked. Jaemin spent almost two hours subtly reading off of Google how the television worked while Jeno pushed his face further and further into Jaemin’s chest. (Jaemin hoped that Jeno couldn’t tell that his heart was beating faster than normal.)

After that night, Jeno had spent almost every night bundled up on the couch, watching whatever movie he picked out of the stack of DVDs next to the television. (He loved Harry Potter and hated Titanic, though not for the usual reasons. (“Jack just wasn’t the right option for her. And romance on a boat just seems like the worst idea ever. Who thought of that?”)) 

Jaemin did his best to explain everything that Jeno had questions about, and found the genie’s unending curiosity adorable because it generally led to a completely different reaction than what he anticipates.

But Jaemin didn’t realize how long Jeno had been staying with him until the genie casually asked how long he had been out of the lamp.

Jaemin is shocked to realize that it has been almost two months of cohabitation (though his back is not surprised that he has been sleeping on the couch for two months). He hadn’t really been thinking about wishes; they seemed to have so much time. There was no rush to get rid of Jeno, and he frankly didn’t want to. The apartment seemed a lot less empty with another person in it.

When he tells Jeno that it’s been two months, the genie is shocked.

“It was only supposed to be a couple of weeks,” he says, hands pushing his hair out of his face.

His hair has gotten longer in the months he has spent with Jaemin, and the first time he pulled it back with a rubber band to get it out of his face, Jaemin thought that his head (or maybe heart) would explode. Jaemin had planned to take him to a barbershop and get it cut, but they hadn’t had the time.

Now, it seems, their time has run out.

“I should have moved on ages ago,” Jeno whispers, more to himself than to Jaemin. “I shouldn’t have let myself get so distracted.”

Jaemin sighs and sits down on the couch. After a moment of hesitation, Jeno takes a seat next to him. 

“It’s your call,” Jaemin murmurs, hands clasped in front of him so that Jeno can’t see how badly they’re shaking. “You’re running this show. Have been since day one.”

Jeno swallows, adam’s apple bobbing in a way that Jaemin normally finds distracting but now only seems to spell out bad things for the both of them. Both men’s eyes are screaming ‘I don’t want this to end’, but neither is looking at the other in fear of what they might find there.

“I think it would be best if I go,” Jeno whispers, scared to speak louder and make the situation any more real than it already is.

“I wish it didn’t have to end,” Jaemin murmurs to himself, but it is loud enough for the other to hear.

“You do?” Jeno asks, incredulous. The other man doesn’t understand his shock; he simply nods and sighs sadly.

“Of course I do.”

“If you could, how would you do it?”

Jaemin doesn’t notice the hazy purple smoke surrounding Jeno’s hands, or the way his words seem weighted with something deeper and older than he appears.

Jaemin sighs again, repositioning himself on the couch and trying to choose his words carefully. “I guess I’d try to figure out how to level the playing field. I feel like while you have so much power, I’m the one with the power to call the shots, and I don’t want there to be a hierarchy anymore. I just wish that this were normal.”

“Normal?” Jeno echoes, eyes glimmering with power.

“You know. Like we’d met like normal people, and I could have called you cute when I met you, and asked you out without feeling like there was a complete lack of power to say no on your part.”

“You think I’m cute?”

Now both human and genie are distracted, which is not good for the combination of hormones, magic, and unmade wishes floating through the air. Jeno seems to have forgotten that he’s on the cusp of granting one of Jaemin’s three wishes, magic volatile and prone to acting out in almost violent ways if he lets it get away from him.

“I mean, yeah?” Jaemin says, and it sounds like a question even though both men know that it is not. 

(Jaemin thinks that it is just typical for him to be nursing a school-boy crush on the genie that he’s convinced himself he bought. Donghyuck and Mark shouldn’t let him do anything. Ever.)

“Why?” And Jeno knows that he shouldn’t be asking, that he should grant the wish in the most predictable way ever and escape back into his bottle. (Honestly, fuck three wishes. Jeno will give Jaemin one and then run for the hills before he gets any more attached.)

Head in his hands, Jaemin responds. “I don’t know? I mean, objectively you’re really attractive, and I’m gay as hell, but it’s more than that? I think I find your general demeanor cute? Like, you look like you could beat me up in an instant, but you’ve got this confused kitten air about you that’s really fucking endearing, and I don’t even mind that you’ve spent the last two months asking me questions about anything and everything, because the way that you look when you understand how or why something works is captivating. And you don’t even know because you’re the least stuck-up person I’ve ever met, and you just  _ live  _ like there’s no tomorrow and I really admire that.”

Jeno is struck speechless, and the purple haze in the room grows thicker. Now, it’s thick enough that Jaemin notices, and his face pales.

“I said them, didn’t I? That’s just typical. Accidental wishes. How many?”

“You’ve used two,” Jeno murmurs. “I haven’t put them into motion yet.”

“What did I wish for?”

“For this not to end, and for it to be normal.”

“That means that I have one left.”

“Yeah.”

“Can I take either of them back?”

“I guess? There’s not really a guidebook for taking back wishes. I do know that you have to replace whichever immediately.”

“Then, I take back the first one. Forcing you to stay here is not my intention.”

“Done. And the replacement?”

Jaemin takes a deep breath. “I wish you every happiness. Anything you want. Have it.”

Jeno’s eyes widen, but he nods. “Would you like to take a third wish?”

“I don’t want it. It can be yours, if you wish.” Jaemin says, and in a puff of purple smoke, Jeno vanishes.

Jaemin’s not sure how his wishes are going to come true, and he’s not sure that he cares. After all, he’s fairly certain that he’s just lost the best thing that’s ever tumbled into his life.

* * *

By some sort of horrible irony, the lamp is still in Jaemin’s apartment. He’s already tried rubbing it to see if Jeno will reappear. He didn’t. So, Jaemin uses the lamp for what he intended to in the first place: flowers.

Yellow roses are a constant staple in the centerpiece; They mean freedom and it takes all of Jaemin’s being to hope that Jeno is free now. Holly and purple lilac are frequent visitors, meaning domestic happiness and the first emotion of love, respectively.

He refuses to put wisteria in the lamp. They mean immortality, and he can’t dwell on the fact that he is but a small blip in Jeno’s endless life while Jeno will always be such a large part of his.

He tries to go about his life as normal; he spends weekends with Donghyuck and Mark, goes to a few new antique shops with Chenle and Renjun (He neglects to buy anything; it feels a bit like cheating, in a way).

It isn’t until October that he realizes that two months have passed since Jeno disappeared, and he’s shocked. He’s still finding bits of Jeno throughout the apartment; Just the other day he found that stupid golden vest in the bottom of the hamper in the bathroom and almost burst into tears of laughter, remembering the look on Jeno’s face when he threw him those sweatpants. (Now that he thinks about it, he never did get those sweatpants back.)

He would say that he’s doing fine, however. He watched Aladdin for nostalgia purposes and didn’t cry, just got upset at the creators on Jeno’s behalf. He knows far too much about genie culture now to watch anything with a magical, wish-granting entity.

Jaemin can’t help but wonder how Jeno’s doing, though. He hopes that Jeno took advantage of his wish for Jeno’s happiness, and did everything that he’s ever wanted to do. He wonders what Jeno wished for, if he wished for anything at all. He just hopes that Jeno’s happy, wherever he is.

* * *

 

It’s one in the morning, and someone is knocking on Jaemin’s apartment door. It’s  _ one in the morning _ , Jaemin’s been asleep for all of  _ two hours _ , and  _ someone _ is knocking on his door.

_ Who on earth is walking around at one in the morning?  _ Jaemin wonders, rubbing his eyes blearily and wandering his way to the front door.

It’s dark in the hallway, and he can’t make out anything beyond a figure through the peephole. He checks to make sure that the chain lock is in place before he opens the door, just a crack.

“Jeno?” he whispers in shock. The other man stands awkwardly in the hall, shifting his weight between his feet nervously as his eyes meet Jaemin’s.

“Hey,” he murmurs, and waves awkwardly at the other man.

Jaemin takes a moment to stare at Jeno before responding. He’s been denied that privilege for two months, and he’s decided that it’s something he deserves (for now, at least), before it’s taken away from him again.

“What are you doing here?” Jaemin asks, closing the door to undo the chain lock before throwing it open wide to allow Jeno entrance.

“Do you know how hard you are to find?” Jeno replies, dodging the question and slipping his shoes off at the front door.

“I haven’t gone anywhere.”

“Yeah, well, I never had any reason to learn your address, and I never paid any attention to what your building looked like so you are a very difficult man to find. I tried using the Google and I couldn’t find anything.”

Jaemin laughs. “How on earth did you manage to figure out Google?”

“A nice lady at the library helped me. She was very attentive.”

They sit down on the couch, and Jaein realizes that Jeno never answered his first question.

“So, what are you doing  _ here _ ? Not that you’re not welcome, of course, but I’m under the impression that you could be anywhere right now.”

“I could be,” Jeno pauses, eyes staring intently at a spot on the carpet. “But I don’t want to be.”

Choosing not to focus on the second, whispered part of Jeno’s sentence, Jaemin asks another question. “Did you use the wish I gave you?”

Jeno nods, but doesn’t elaborate.

Jaemin doesn’t want to pry, but he’s curious. He’s not sure how and why Jeno’s sitting in his apartment again, and he doesn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it doesn’t make sense to him.

“What did you wish for?” Jaemin whispers, pulling his knees to his chest and hugging them as he waits for Jeno’s answer.

Still staring at the carpet, Jeno replies, “I don’t know if I should say.”

“Are you happy with it?”

“I am.” the response is quick and definite, and Jaemin is thankful that while Jeno may not want to share his wish with him, he’s satisfied with it.

“Was it… was it a difficult choice?”

Jeno bites his lip. “Yeah,” he whispers. “Yeah, it was.”

“But, you’re happy? Completely, absolutely happy?” Jaemin’s voice is almost too hopeful, sounding as though it is on the edge of breaking.

Jeno nods. “I traveled the world. I got to see everything  I’ve ever wanted to see all within a few weeks, and then I had to go to the Council of Genies.”

Jaemin’s brows furrow. “Council of Genies?”

“Well, no genie has ever been given a wish before. No one knew the protocol. I’m not sure how long it took for them to figure out how to grant the wish I wanted, but eventually they managed to come up with some sort of crazy, convoluted method to make it happen. I don’t fully understand how it worked, so please don’t ask me to explain it. But, whatever they did worked. And now I’m here.”

“Now you’re here,” Jaemin echoes, dazed look upon his face as he tries to take it all in.

Jeno nods again, eyes sparkling in a way that Jaemin has  _ missed.  _ “I’m back! And human, and definitely more mortal than before, but I don’t have to go back into that stupid lamp ever again.”

“You’re human now?”

“Well, I wanted to wish myself free, but there are all kinds of rules for that and I didn’t want to have to deal with them all. It’s not as easy as they make it seem in Aladdin. So I wished myself human instead.”

Jaemin pinches himself. He’s almost sure that this whole thing is a horribly realistic dream, and that in a moment he’s going to wake up a little more lonely than before. But he doesn’t wake up, and that pinch hurts. It begins to dawn on him that this is reality.

“You’re human and your plan is what, exactly?”

Jeno seems to deflate a bit at that. “Well, there were all kinds of documents and such that had to be created out of thin air for me, but I think all the paperwork and legal stuff is taken care of. I don’t really have a plan; my first priority was to find you.”

Jaemin leans backward into the couch. It’s now one forty-five in the morning, and he really doesn’t know how to figure out everything that needs to be figured out about Jeno on two hours of sleep. He decides to file it away as a tomorrow problem and go back to bed.

He has one question left to ask, however.

“Jeno, why was your first priority to find me?”

Jeno has the grace to look sheepish, hair falling forward to cover his face as he tucks his chin into his chest in embarrassment. “Well, you care about me. And when I asked how you would make it normal, you said that you thought I was cute, and that you wanted to ask me out like normal humans do, and I realized that I wanted that. And then you wished for my happiness, and I got to see the world, but I figured out that that didn’t make me as happy as watching movies and cuddling with you. You wished me every happiness, Jaemin. And you make me happy. So, here I am.”

“Here you are,” Jaemin echoes in a whisper.

There’s still a lot for them to figure out: what Jeno’s going to do next, how Jaemin’s going to explain to his landlord (and friends) that’s he’s got a new roommate, how exactly all of those pesky wishes came true. But for now, Jaemin really only has one wish, and a genie that can hopefully make it come true.

“Hey, Jeno?”

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if I could maybe… Can I kiss you?”

Jeno is taken aback for a moment, cat-like eyes widening as he turns to look at Jaemin. The other man meets his eyes with an unwavering gaze, though the expression on his face still screams nervousness and hopefulness, and Jeno can’t help but nod because he really wants this.

After all, Jaemin wished him every happiness.

And now he gets to have it.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> The kiss is perfect, of course. It’s nomin; how could it not be? In all actuality, I wanted to have this up on the 13th for Jaemin’s birthday, but it just wasn't’ finished. For once, this fic went through about a million editors. There’s an art commission coming soon; thanks to my sister for listening while I ranted about Jeno in purple harem pants, then agreeing to draw it.


End file.
